Pedestrian Level-of-Service Model for Arterials

NCHRP Project 3-70, Multimodal Level of Service Analysis for Urban Streets, is developing and testing a framework and enhanced methods for determining levels of service for the automobile, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian modes on urban streets. The proposed pedestrian level-of-service (LOS) model for arterials developed as part of NCHRP Project 3-70 is presented. This effort represents a progressive shift in evaluating the quality of service from a provider-based measure (how many vehicles or pedestrians can be moved and how fast) to a user-based measure (how well do drivers and pedestrians believe the facility meets their needs). To obtain feedback from potential pedestrian facility users, data for the model were obtained from participants in video simulation laboratories. The proposed model consists of a pedestrian density LOS and a pedestrian nondensity LOS. The density LOS is computed according to the methods provided in the Highway Capacity Manual. The nondensity LOS is a function of the pedestrian LOS of roadway segments, the pedestrian LOS of intersections, and the roadway crossing difficulty factor.